


An Old Name

by RLestat



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Genre: M/M, Soulmate AU, Stobotnik, Trans Male Character, transbotnik
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:07:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25671052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RLestat/pseuds/RLestat
Summary: Everyone has the name of their soulmate written on their wrist. What happens if your soulmate changes their name?
Relationships: Dr. Eggman | Dr. Robotnik/Agent Stone
Comments: 3
Kudos: 103





	An Old Name

The wind blew gently. It was frosty, but not unbearably so. Though, this detail is not particularly important, as our characters could not feel the breeze within the confines of the heated metallic walls of the doctor’s personal laboratory. 

Robotnik sat at his monitors, the brandeis blue glow glazing his eyes with an intellectual shine. The day thus far had been rather unsuccessful. No new information was found on the annoyance of an alien calling itself Sonic, and the fidgeting man was far from pleased. 

Without the presence of new data to whir in his akin-to-machinery mind, Robotnik’s brain was left to wander through thoughts he would rather discard. His gaze subconsciously drifted to his wrist, which was hidden by the long, onyx-black sleeves of his coat. Robotnik didn’t know why he kept looking back at the name scrawled on his wrist, but he did.

‘Aban’

Robotnik sighed. He had always been so careful to not become any level of acquainted with people by that name, but he had made the mistake of not bothering to learn his assistant’s first name until it was much too late. Now, he was stuck with a man who was very likely his dreaded soulmate, and he couldn’t do anything about it. In reality, of course, nobody would have been surprised if Robotnik had fired Stone unprompted. But the doctor (though he would never admit it) quite enjoyed the agent’s company and, despite himself, was reluctant to get rid of him. 

Lost in his thoughts, Robotnik failed to hear the lab door slide open, and subsequently jumped out of his skin when the steaming latte was placed down on the desk beside him. The doctor scrambled to cover the name on his arm and ordered Stone to leave him be, but, for a reason he couldn’t tell you, changed his mind just before the agent was gone.

“Stone, wait.”  
The agent backed up into the lab almost instantaneously at the command.  
“Yes, doctor?” He inquired with an innocent grin. You could never have guessed this beaming man was a dangerous government agent.  
“I have a question,” Robotnik didn’t want to bring his theory to light, but the words felt like they were forcing themselves out against his will.  
“What’s the problem, sir?” Stone asked, still incredulously chipper.  
“We’ve worked together for quite a long while now, and I know close to everything about you, bar one detail,” He sighed as he spoke. It was too late to go back now.  
“And what would that be, sir?”  
“Your name.”

Stone blinked in puzzlement. Surely the doctor knew this.  
“Uh, A- Aban…?” he mumbled hesitantly.  
Robotnik exasperatedly shook his head into his glove.  
“Not your name, you halfwit. Your _name._ ” He emphasised the final word and glanced down at the cuffs of Stone’s pristine, tailored jacket. 

“Ooh!” Stone exclaimed when he was realised, and then panicked when that realisation kicked in, “O-oh-”  
Stone looked down, nervously muttering something or other about privacy. When his line of vision travelled back up from the floor, Robotnik had disappeared, leaving his swivel chair spinning emptily.  
“Sir?-” His curiosity was cut short when he felt the doctor grab his arm from behind. It was the strangest thing but, when Robotnik pulled up the sleeve and saw the name, Stone could have sworn he felt the doctor wince.

Stone laughed apprehensively.  
“Uh, haha, yeah I’ve uh-” He swallowed his unease (a third of it, at least), “I haven’t uh, I haven’t met her yet.” 

Robotnik twitched his head to the side, flinching at the word. It felt, to him, like a shot of acid rain on an empty stomach.  
**Her.**  
_That_ hadn’t happened in a very long time. He had almost forgotten how it felt.

Robotnik gulped. “On the contrary, agent. You are very familiar with… him.”  
“Him, doctor? I don’t know about you, but I’ve never met a man called-”  
“Shshsh nope!” the doctor snapped. Hearing it out loud might very well have broken him.

Robotnik groaned, slamming his fist onto the desk which he had once again stalked over to. His frustrated stare shifted over the desktop until it landed on a stranded Sharpie, half buried in unimportant (official government) papers and documents. He grabbed it, and turned back to the increasingly confused agent. 

This was something he had to do. No, he _wanted_ to do. And he decided writing it would be much easier than verbal articulation. 

He grabbed Stone’s arm again, though this time it was much more gentle. He was silent, and riddled with a refusal to look up to meet Stone’s perplexed expression. With reminiscent tears in his eyes, Robotnik took the sharpie to the old name on the agent’s wrist, crossing it out and, below it, writing a familiar set of three letters.

‘Ivo’

Neither of them spoke. Not until a solitary tear dropped onto Stone’s arm, smudging the ink a little.  
“You know, I don’t know why I assumed it would change accordingly,” Robotnik sniffled.  
“I do hope this won’t be a prob-” In a flash like a drone strike, Stone pulled the doctor into his winterly warm embrace, “-lem,” Robotnik finished with a smile half covered by Stone’s shoulder. 

That hug was a warmth Robotnik had never felt before. He clutched onto the back of Stone’s clothes, and despite everything that he had experienced, he feared no hostility. He felt safe. 

As both parties backed away from the hug, Robotnik finally gathered up the courage to look Stone in the eye. Stone held out his hands; an offer which Robotnik gladly accepted.

“Of course it’s no problem. You’re still a man. A very… manly.. man,” Stone whispered in a tone of utmost awkwardness. In a not-so-futile attempt to cloak his self-made embarrassment, he leaned down and placed a welcome kiss on the doctor’s smirking lips.

“And… and you’re my soulmate,” Aban added, pressing his forehead to that of the man before him.

Ivo laughed tenderly.

“And you, my dear, are an imbecile.”


End file.
